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Members of the Luzerne County Historical Society won’t be able to nominate new board members during the 158th annual dinner meeting on Friday.

The historical society, founded in 1858 as the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, has nearly 800 members and a 23-member board of directors, plus two directors emeritus.

A revised copy of the historical society’s bylaws obtained by The Citizens’ Voice shows that, among several changes, members can no longer nominate candidates for the board of directors from the floor at the annual meetings. Instead, members will vote on a slate of nominations submitted to the board’s nominating committee no later than March 20 — the annual meeting is held in April — and approved by the board.

The bylaws were also changed so that special meetings can only be called by the board president or any nine members of the board of directors. Previously 20 members could sign a petition to call a special meeting.

Despite several attempts, board President Carl Rosencrance could not be reached for comment. First Vice President Jon Pollard did not return a call for comment, and several other board members either could not be reached, did not have working numbers or did not want to comment.

Board member Kathleen Smith said the bylaw changes were approved at the board’s March meeting.

“I was the only one who tried to vote it down,” she said.

Smith said she is looking out for historical society members, because it is a membership-based organization, and she is disappointed in the direction the board is taking toward them.

“They’re taking away the voice of the membership,” she said.

Historical Society member Emily Novakowski of Forty Fort believes the bylaws were altered because of an incident at last year’s annual dinner meeting.

Another member nominated Smith from the floor, and Novakowski seconded the motion.

After that, Novakowski said she was asked to leave the meeting, but she didn’t.

“They were trying to block the nomination and stop my rights, under the Robert’s Rules of Order, to second a nomination. I never left the dinner/meeting and the nomination went through, and Kathleen Smith was elected to the board,” she explained. “I absolutely refused to leave because I didn’t do anything wrong. All I did was second a nomination.”

About a week later, Novakowski asked for the membership list because she wanted to call a special meeting.

“They completely ignored that. They never followed up on that. And now they have changed it because I had the audacity to use it,” she said.

What upsets Novakowski is that allowing board nominations from the floor and members to call special meetings are common practice among nonprofit organizations.

Another change to the bylaws is that 15 percent of the members have to be present at the annual meeting for there to be a quorum, instead of 10 percent.

That doesn’t make a difference, Novakowski said.

“The members really don’t have any input as far as this organization is concerned,” she said. “They went out of their way to change the bylaws to obstruct the rights of members.”

Novakowski also noted that members have not been notified by the board that the bylaws have changed.

“The board of directors has made it meaningless to be a member of the Luzerne County Historical Society,” she said.

eskrapits@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2072

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